It has been entirely too long since my last blog, so here goes. First of all, we are all very excited about our Silver Medal at the World Beer Cup this past weekend. It was awarded to Luscious, a British-style Imperial Stout. You may recall that this beer was one of the beers I was able to save from the flooded pub. I just want to thank again, the Vermont breweries that were involved in the rescue mission. Full details of the process are available in the blog archives.

Secondly, we are happy to announce that the problems we were experiencing with the Celia Saison are no more. The second bottling run took place on Monday, and we are now on schedule to get into regular production. It will still be relatively limited availability, but that will change once Mercury moves into their new production facility.

I also wanted to share some news about the production here at the Cannery. We will soon begin demolition on the remainder of the space here, and it will enable us to bump up production again by the end of the year. This expansion will eventually lead to me being able to produce some of my old recipes for release here at the Cannery. Don’t get too excited though, I’ve come to expect the unexpected, and only time will tell if we are able to stick to this timeline. Keep your fingers crossed and think positive.

I’ve been pretty busy with collaboration beers lately. On April 20th, I brewed a batch of IPA with my friend Jean Francois Gravel from Dieu di Ciel. This beer will be available at their pub in Montreal for the Mondial Festival in early June. I believe the name of it will be Moralitè, named after the wonderful Morality police force in their fair city. It was loosely patterned after Focal Banger. We used all pale malt, so it should be nice and crisp. I haven’t tried it since then, so I look forward to getting my hands on some.

Another collaboration I recently did was with Russ and JD at the Vermont Pub and Brewery. We brewed a small 20 gallon batch of gluten-free Belgian-style fruit beer made with sorghum and 60 pounds of peaches. Their little pilot system is very cool. I believe it will be released at their brewery on May 20th.

For the Vermont Brewers Festival this summer, I will be making an American Stout with my friend Tod Mott from Portsmouth Brewery. This will be released at the fest, and it should be rather tasty by the time we are done with it. It is tentatively named Sqidgy Black and will most likely come in at the 7%abv range. Stay tuned.

We recently bought a new delivery truck, and we will be getting the logos put on in the next few weeks. Just wait and see, it will be awesome…

Until the next time, keep drinking.

John

Gold, silver and bronze awards in the competition’s 95 beer-style categories were presented May 5, 2012 during the World Beer Cup Gala Awards Dinner at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California.

The Alchemist was awarded a silver  in the British-Style Imperial Stout beer style category for its Luscious, a beer that was rescued from the flooded brewery following Hurricane Irene.  This jet black, full-bodied, 11% abv ale was aged for 17 months prior to competition entry.

“I was thrilled to be able to enter anything in the competition this year, let alone such a special beer that I put so much time into creating.  I can’t think of a better way to thank all of the breweries involved in rescuing this beer, than by it earning a medal at such a prestigious competition”  said John Kimmich, co-owner and Head Brewer at The Alchemist in Waterbury, VT.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids was awarded a silver  in the Specialty beer style category for its Maple Tripple, a beer brewed once a year with sap from Fayston, Vermont.

World Beer Cup winners were selected by an international panel of 218 beer judges from 29 countries. The competition—referred to as the “Olympics of Beer Competition”—saw an impressive field of nearly 4,000 entries from 828 breweries in 56 countries. The 2012 competition drew the largest, most international field of entrants in the history of the World Beer Cup.

Visit WorldBeerCup.org for additional World Beer Cup information.

We have been struggling keeping up with the demand for Heady Topper here in Vermont since we opened in September.  We had a great winter season, and continue to sell nearly 80% of our beer in Burlington alone!  We are happy with this, as we always wanted Heady to be a local beer, first and foremost.

Initially, we thought we would have enough Heady Topper to send to Boston on a regular basis.  However, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Burlington has a lot of beer drinking power (I would have been in trouble if Heady was around while at UVM).  Hence, we have only had the opportunity to make one shipment to Boston in the last 8 months.

Now that mud season is among us, I am happy to say that we finally have some extra product to send out of Vermont.  Over the course of the next 8 weeks, we plan to make shipments to Philadelphia, Boston and NYC.  We wanted to attend Philadelphia Beer Week in June, but realized that we will not have enough product to send out of state once summer is upon us.

So, we will have Heady Topper available in Philadelphia within the next 2 weeks.  Origlio is helping us with this shipment; we hope to have a link on our website listing retailers as soon as possible.   I do know that our friends Tom and Peggy, at Earth, Bread and Brewery will be having some sort of event with Heady.  Wish we could make it!  They are a lot of fun.

In a couple more weeks, I hope to have another pallet to send to Boston.  We sent a pallet a few months ago, and we look forward to getting some more fresh Heady to our neighbors in Massachusetts.  This is a great market for us- lots of honest beer drinkers.  If we ever have enough Heady to expand our distribution on a regular basis, it will most definitely be Boston.

Finally, sometime in May, we hope to send a pallet to NYC.  This will go through Union Beer.  Again, we will post a link on our website with retailers.  We have never sent Heady to NYC, so it will be fun to see how it goes.  And, it will be really great to have our good friends at The Blind Tiger serving it.

Once summer arrives, we anticipate selling all canned Heady Topper in Vermont.  However, in the meantime, we will do our best to get some Heady to our neighboring states.

We are absolutely humbled by the response we have had in Vermont.  Consumers and retailers alike have shown us more support than we ever dreamed of.  So, thank you Vermonters!  And, thank you to everyone who has made the pilgrimage to Vermont to visit us and all of our great local breweries.

Following Tropical Storm Irene’s flood devastation, the financial boost you bring to our villages is integral to our recovery.

-Jen

Unfortunately, we have decided to pull the first batch off of shelves, and have it destroyed.

I got my first bottle last night, and I am just not satisfied with the way it turned out. I have always strived to deliver exceptional beers to my customers, and sadly, this batch is not exceptional.  I myself, experienced a learning curve when I started making these gluten-free beers, and we are experiencing the same learning curve as we attempt to brew at another facility.

I lay the blame squarely at my own feet.

When the first two batches were in the kettle, I did not pay enough attention to when it was time to introduce the protein coagulant. This oversight has resulted in a very fizzy head on the beer that disappears almost immediately.

This is not something that I can let go out to our customers that expect a certain level of quality with anything that has our name on it.

To those of you that have already purchased some of this batch, I sincerely apologize.

Yesterday morning, I made a fresh batch at the brewing facility, and it was all done to my previous brewing protocol. I can only hope that this resolves our problems, and we can get it out to you in a timely manner. The new bottling run should occur in about 3 weeks, at which point Celia Saison will return to the market. If I find that it is still not up to my level of quality, we will pull back even further, to reassess our approach to sharing our award-winning beer with a wider audience.

Thank you for understanding our situation, and please give us another chance in a few weeks.

Until then, keep on keeping on.

John

The production of Heady Topper is rolling along nicely, and we are clicking at capacity. Things have gone really smoothly these first 6 months. We are now available all over the state of Vermont with a couple exclusive tap accounts here in Waterbury. As for the foreseeable future, there are only two places in the world, other than here, where you can get draft Heady Topper. The first is at our good friends from Hen of the Wood. The second is at the newly rebuilt and reopened 23 South Main Street. Once the location of The Alchemist Pub and Brewery, it is now the location of Prohibition Pig.

Jen and I have been totally focused on rebuilding the location , and couldn’t be more excited to welcome Chad and his new restaurant into the town. I know people have been anxiously awaiting the return, and I can’t tell you how good it felt to see smiling faces in there having a good time. They pretty much have the same hours that we used to have, so be sure to get back in and see all of the improvements that were made. I think you’ll love the changes, and I know you’ll love the food and drinks.

As for other news, we are proud to announce that we are bottling our first batch of Celia Saison tomorrow at Mercury Brewing. Our award-winning gluten-free Belgian-style Saison was just begging to be produced, and we just don’t have the resources to do it justice. For now, we are brewing 70 barrels a month of this, and it will be available in Massachusetts and Vermont in the next few weeks. With time and increased production, it will spread throughout New England. Stay tuned for more news on that front.

Other than that, We sent off our entries into the World Beer Cup, and will get results in early May. Keep your fingers crossed for Vermont beer!

I talked to my friend Tod Mott last night, and we have decided to brew a collaboration for the Vermont Brewers Festival in July. Initial conversations have some sort of ridiculously hoppy, devastatingly delicious stout of some sorts… Should be fun and delicious no matter what we decide upon.

Until the next time, keep drinking.

Responsibly, of course.

John

I generally don’t make such requests of you, but…

Vermont beers are under attack!

The following link will take you to the voting page of a Beer Bracket being held by 7 Days newspaper. Believe it or not, Woodchuck Hard Cider is vying for Best Vermont beer …?!?!??? It is time to rally the troops and vote for your favorite beer.

Thank you for taking time from your jobs to do this. See you in the Finals!

http://www.7dvt.com/2012vermont-brew-bracket

Sincerely,

John

Since we can’t send beer to Michigan or Arizona or Washington, we’d like to try to get everyone at least halfway to the Heady Topper experience: our new online store for Alchemist merchandise!

The Alchemist Brewery Online Retail Store

It’s a new experience for us as well, and there’s been a ton to learn and put in place.  Our tests so far have worked out, so we’re confidently nervous about releasing this out there.  There’s a contact form on the site, so please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or thoughts!

The great thing about websites though is that they can keep evolving and improving, which we certainly intend to do, as well as expanding the product lines as sales allow.

As always, our thanks from Waterbury!

The Alchemist/Ninkasi/Stone

More Brown Than Black IPA

will be celebrated with:

$5.00 pints available all day

Friday, January 27 – Saturday, January 28

11:00am – 8pm (both days)

Your first pint will be $7.00 but will include for you to keep an Alchemist Pint Glass

(and the whole deal includes the 10% beverage tax)

[ Edit ] To be indeed held at The Cannery!

We are selling 12 ounce bottles for $4.00, and we will be pouring  3 ounce pours for $1.

Since Vermont received such a limited amount of this special beer, there will be a limit of 6 bottles per person.  To find out more about this beer, check out this amazing story.

If you can’t make it to the brewery here in Waterbury, following is a list of establishments in Vermont where you’ll be able to get a bottle (or two or three!).

• Hen of the Wood
• Beverage Warehouse
• Healthy Living
• The Rusty Nail
• Bristol Beverage
• Hunger Mountain Coop
• Waitsfield Wine Shop
• The Warren Store
• Meurons Market
• Sunflower Natural Foods
• The Farmhouse Tap and Grill
• Cork
• The Reservoir
• Stowe Beverage
• The Mad Taco
• Skinny Pancake/Montpelier
• Frieda’s/Stowe
• Crossroads Beverage/Waterbury
• Sweet Clover Market
• Meulmans Craft Drafts
• South Royalton Market
• Manchester Discount Beverage
• The Brattleboro Coop
• Parker Pie
• Lake Parker Store
• Bennington Beverage Den
• Colonial Mart
• Lyndonville Redemption
• Das Biere Haus
• Pearl Street Beverage
• Richmond Market
• Coop Food Store/White River
• Woodstock Farmers Market
• Gillinghams Store
• Dan and Whit’s
• Mikes Collectables
• Norwich Wine and Spirits
• Terrill Street
• Green Mountain Boys Beverages
• Brewfest Beverage
• Sandri’s/Chester
• Singletons Store
• The Three Penny Taproom
• City Market
• Medetrina Beer, Wine and Cheese
• Windham Wines
• Trattoria Delia
• Usave Beverage
• Gracie’s Liquors
• Positive Pie/Plainfield
• Mid Station at Mount Snow

The Alchemist-Ninkasi-Stone Collaboration: More Brown Than Black IPA from Stone Brewing on Vimeo.

Here’s a great re-cap of the entire scenario from the cool folks at Stone Brewing.